Ron's Turn
by Matthew Persico
Summary: Ron is always playing second fiddle to Harry... except this time.


_A/N - My appologies for not including the following disclaimer at first posting: All of the characters below are those of JKR. Thank you for bringing them to us.  
  
_ RON'S GLORY   
Chapter 1  
  
"Remembrance"  
  
"Oy."  
  
Ron opened his eyes and turned his head. Where he had expected to see the curtains of his four-poster bed, he saw instead a line of beds and a large ceiling to floor window. It was dark and the moon was shining brightly. _ Where am I? What time is it?_ he thought to himself. Ron tried to get up to see if he could identify his surroundings and find a clock, but he only got as far as lifting his head up from the pillow. The rest of him was completely immobilized. Confused, he was about to call out for help, when the very effort of opening his mouth sent a spasm of pain down the whole left side of his body. Come to think of it, the pain shot down the right side of his body too. It had the effect of shocking him onto remembering.  
  
The reason that the only moveable parts of Ron's body were those above his neck was that he was in the infirmary in a Complete Body Cast spell. _That's what happens when you break 13 bones, including both femurs, both tibias, a hip, a shoulder, various other smaller bones and three ribs, one of which punctures a lung and shakes up all your internal organs like a sackful of Chocolate Frogs. If it wasn't for Madam Pomfrey's quick thinking with that Comatose Inducious spell, they would have been planning a funeral for me now, instead of the biggest party Gryffindor house has ever seen. _  
  
At least, that's what Hermoine, Harry and Ginny told him was going on, along with the fact that he should keep that piece of knowledge under his hat. The party was supposed to be a surprise, but they thought news would cheer him up.   
  
They told him this on the first day that he had just come out from his coma. The first five faces he saw were his parents, his sister, his you-know-what-friend, and his best friend. He relived the moment in his mind's eye.  
  
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were summoned right after the event. They spent three straight days in the infirmary, waiting for Ron to come out of the Comatose Inducious spell and they looked it. Ron thought for a moment that his maternal grandmother had come back to life; Mrs. Weasley looked that much older from the strain. Mr. Weasley had tears in his eyes when Ron woke up. It looked as though he had been crying for all three days. In fact, it was four days since the accident, but because no one can just apparate onto the grounds, his parents needed the better part of the first day just to get to Hogwarts.  
  
Ginny was there in her capacity as Harry's girlfriend, supporting Harry, as much as she was there worrying about her brother. She looked so sad and frail, with eyes so red from crying that they exactly matched the color of her hair. She looked so very different from the fierce competitor she was the last time Ron saw her.  
  
Hermoine was there too. When Ron woke up, Hermoine was the first one to throw her arms around him, saying over and over, through bouts of crying, "Ron, I'm so sorry, I never should have said it, never should have goaded you into it, please, please forgive me...". If any other person in the world had beat Mrs. Weasley to Ron to get that first hug of relief, he or she would have been in mortal danger of being transfigured into something completely inhuman. But, as it was Hermoine, Mrs. Weasley let it go.   
  
Until that moment, Hermoine had said nothing for the better part of those four days. It was as if a dam had burst and all the worry and fear that was bottled up came raging out of her. They finally had to pull her away because she was not only hugging Ron, but rocking him too, which was not going to help his mending bones at all.  
  
In some sense this was partially her fault. If he was a Muggle, he might have thought she had bewitched him. Being a wizard, he was sure of it. _ But she didn't have her wand out. Can someone put a spell on you with a kiss? Oh, stop complaining you silly git, you didn't mind the encouragement she gave you for two weeks prior. Or the rubdowns._ He grinned at that last thought, but it hurt too much, so he stopped.  
  
Harry. _Oy. Harry._ He looked like Sirius in his darker days. Harry hadn't shaved, his hair was even more rumpled than normal and he looked as pale as his Patronus. If Ron wasn't immobile, he would have dragged a worried hand over his equally worried face. Harry was smiling when Ron opened his eyes, but that did not convince Ron that he and Harry would still be friends after this. Ron was really worried that even though Harry said it was all right for Ron to do what he did, Harry would still hold it against him. _ That's what he said:"I don't care." I hope he means it after I get out of here. It's one thing to be nice to an invalid but I'll bet five galleons he never expected me to take him up on it...  
_  
Ron leaned his head back against the pillow and closed his eyes. He tried to recall all the other events of the past two and half weeks. It was all a blur. Images of broomsticks swirled in his head. He finally cleared the spell-induced fog from his brain just long enough to remember exactly how he ended up in the infirmary. And then he smiled.   
  
Because if he had to do it all over again, he would have. And he wouldn't have changed a thing.  
  



End file.
